Bible Commentaries

The Character of Jezebel

2 Kings 9:30

Some there are who, having an imperfect knowledge of the true position of woman among the Ezekiel 33:11; 2 Peter 3:9). A life of probation must necessarily have a termination; and at last, at the age of about fifty, death happened to this infamous woman, the dowager-queen of Israel. As Jehu stood in his chariot under the window of the palace, he cried with a loud voice to the court servants above, "Throw her down"; and if God's commands would justify Jehu, Jehu's commands would justify the eunuchs. So they threw her down, just as common malefactors were cast headlong from some rocky height; and as she had caused the stoning of Naboth, now stones cause her death. What an indignity—a queen-mother, with her face painted to render her eyes surpassingly brilliant and her cheeks beauteous as the rose; a tiara of sparkling gems round her head, and a robe of untold costliness on her person—thus to be cast from the window of her own royal house by her very menials, and thereby dashed to death upon the hard pavement below. But even this was not all: her corpse was frightfully broken and disfigured by the prancing horses and rolling chariots, and the hungry dogs completed the work. To rest in no sepulchre was the very climax of her dishonour and shame. What a fate! Jezebel had been a sinner above all sinners; hence her last end was truly dreadful. "The mills of God grind slowly," but, "they grind exceeding small".

References.—X:15.—T. De Witt Talmage, Sermons, p102. J. Beveridge, Give Me Thine Hand, p5. X:16.—H. P. Liddon, Sermons on Old Testament Subjects, p302. W. H. Oldfield, Mohammedan Missions in the Near East, S.P.C.K. Tracts1897-1904. Blunt, Original Family Sermons, p185. Simeon, Works, vol. iii. p517. A. Roberts, Sermons, vol. ii. p171. Gisborne, Sermons, vol. ii. p152. X:18-31.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture— 2 Kings , etc, from chap. viii. p6.